Nov 4, 2013

Baby Book Club - November - Jamberry

It is no secret that we love to read. We own an insane amount of books, and I read between 10-30 a day per Kingston's request. I have been wanting to start a "Baby Book Club" for quite awhile! I love the thought of doing tons of book based projects and crafts. I wanted a place to connect with other mamas, build friendships and strengthen bonds for our children, and engage in fun, hands on learning! I knew I wanted to go in the direction of a book club, and after researching a few different ones online, I decided to go ahead with it. I found a great group of mamas and babes to join us, created the book list, and scheduled the first meeting. We met for the first time on November 1, to read our book -Jamberry by Bruce Degen!

For this first meeting, we had 5 mamas and babies ranging from 9-18 months! We are excited to have even more friends next month. As everyone gathered, we let the kiddos play and get acclimated. I set up a blanket and some pillows in the middle of the living room. We all sat down, introduced ourselves and babies for the people that did not know each other, and talked about how we knew each other. This made it feel more official!

(Check out Kingston and the adorable little girl with the pig tails who were rocking their bear shirts!)

Then, we gathered all the babes into our laps and I read the book aloud while all of the others followed along with their own copies. In Jamberry, a boy goes off with a rhyming bear who introduces him to a world of berries. This book a such a fun read! It is fun to read aloud AND to listen to. The rhymes are adorable and the pictures are colorful. Not to mention, who doesn't love an adorable berry-lovin' bear!

(Check out this little cutie!!)

After we read our book, it was snack time! For our snack, we did a "Jamberry" Taste Test!! Most of these little ones had never had jam before, so it was quite a treat. The other mamas brought a variety of different jams: Blueberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, and Apricot (which no is NOT a berry, but my little guy is allergic to strawberries!) We cut a slice of organic whole wheat bread into quarters and spread a different jam on each one. I asked everybody to bring a portable highchair if they had one, and we sat all the munchkins on the floor in a semi-circle to eat their treat!

One of the mamas even provided each child with these really awesome Plum Organics Tots Fruit and Grain Mish Mash pouches that they all had a great time squeezing and making a mess with! For the most part, snack time was a huge success with the tots. We did have one cutie who was weary of it, which made for some really adorable pictures. She settled for a gluten free cookie instead!

I asked someone could bring a snack for the mamas and were lucky enough to have a couple mamas bring some yummy treats! While the kids ate, we snacked on some homemade apple cake and gluten free chocolate chip cookies.

After the munchkins were somewhat cleaned up from their snack, we got ready for our activity! I planned a bubble wrap berry printing craft.

We taped the paper to each of their chairs and dipped the bubble wrap in the paint. I had pre-cut the bubble wrap into small rectangles, so we dipped them each in a different color and handed them out to the tots. They went to work making their berries. (TIP: After they print their berries, take paper away and allow them to continue painting on their highchairs. We didn't do that so we had half berries and half fingerpainted squiggles! But, it's the process that counts and they had so much fun!)

When the prints were done, we cleaned up the kiddos and let them play for awhile more together. We've since decided that at this time next meeting, we will be re-reading the book again as a conclusion to each meeting. That way, it will be fresh in the babies minds! Instead, the kids took in some light reading of their own.

Baby Book Club was a total success and everyone had a blast! Stay tuned for next months book: The Mitten by Jan Brett!

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14 comments:

What an amazing experience you provided to the little ones! I'm so inspired to get our own baby book club off the ground. It's something I've been wanting to do for such a long time! Jamberry was a great choice to kick off the club. Can't wait to see what else the club does!

Thank you so much Jodie!! You absolutely should get one going. It is so good for both mama and baby! If you do start one, I would love to read all about it! :) Stay tuned for next months book: The Mitten!

Thanks Emma! Most of the ladies in the group go to my storytime. I wanted to do something that was on a smaller scale where we could further explore each book. We are really excited to be doing it, and hope to continue for as many years as we can!

How exciting Tiffiny and thank you! I am the founder and facilitator of the book club, so I actually came up with the book list and assigned the months on my own. I think if you are going to start one, it is a lot easier to have one person who hosts and puts it together, and have the other members help out with what is already planned. IMO in makes things run smoother! If you do start one let me know! I would love to hear about it. :)

So excited to see that you started a Baby Book Club! Thanks for linking to us as your source of inspiration! Hope you will keep in touch through our blog and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BabyToddlerBookClub) about what you are doing! We'd love to connect with baby book clubs all around the world to feature on our blog! http://babytoddlerbookclub.wordpress.com/read-with-us/. Hope it goes well!